A prober used as an inspection device for inspecting a wafer, on which a large number of semiconductor devices is formed, includes a probe card having a plurality of columnar contact terminals acting as contact probes. The wafer is brought into contact with the probe card bringing each contact probe into contact with an electrode pad or a solder bump in the semiconductor device, and an electric current flows to an electric circuit of the semiconductor device connected to the electrode pad or the solder bump, thereby inspecting the conduction state or the like of the electric circuit.
In recent years, in order to improve wafer inspection efficiency, a wafer inspection device has been developed which includes a plurality of probe cards and can inspect a semiconductor device of a wafer with one probe card while another wafer is transferred to another probe card by a transfer stage. In this wafer inspection device, a wafer W is loaded on a chuck top 90, which is a thick plate member (see FIG. 10A), and a space between a probe card 91 and the chuck top 90 is evacuated so that the wafer W is brought into contact with the probe card 91 together with the chuck top 90 (see FIG. 10B), thereby preventing the wafer from warping when the wafer is brought into contact with the probe card (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Here, when the wafer W is brought into contact with the probe card 91, the chuck top 90 is mounted on a stage 92, and the stage 92 moves the chuck top 90 toward the probe card 91. Thereafter, the chuck top 90 is adsorbed by the probe card 91 and separated from the stage 92.
However, inspection conditions for wafer inspection have become complicated in recent years, and, in particular, many inspections are carried out in a high-temperature or low-temperature environment.